Why are you a historian of Latin America?
Studying languages led me from Michigan to Paraguay and then Brazil. I became interested in the history of US presence in the region.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
Small things matter.
Which history book has had the greatest influence on you?
Rebecca Earle’s The Return of the Native: Indians and Myth-Making in Spanish America, 1810-1930.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Barbara Weinstein’s The Color of Modernity: São Paulo and the Making of Race and Nation in Brazil.
Which moment would you most like to go back to?
When four fishermen arrived in protest in Rio de Janeiro in 1941. They were received as heroes and their raft was carried through the streets.
Which historian has had the greatest influence on you?
Marshall C. Eakin.
Which person in history would you most like to have met?
My great grandfather, Augusto Pastori.
How many languages do you have?
Spanish and Portuguese. I learned Guaraní in Paraguay, but haven't spoken it in decades.
Is there an important historical text you have not read?
I’ve yet to finish Hobsbawm’s Age of… series.
What historical topic have you changed your mind on?
I used to give the powerful a lot of agency and the oppressed little.
What is the most common misconception about your field?
That it is beach-adjacent. Historical archives tend to be in parts of the city that have cheaper property costs.
Who is the most underrated person in history…
Maria da Penha. The law in Brazil prohibiting violence against women is named after her.
… and the most overrated?
Populists in general, but I’ll go for Getúlio Vargas.
What’s the most exciting field in history today?
Anything dealing with the Atlantic world.
What’s your favourite archive?
The Joaquim Nabuco Foundation in Recife.
What’s the best museum?
The Museum of Chacará do Sol in Rio de Janeiro.
What technology has changed the world the most?
For my profession, the digital camera.
Recommend us a historical novel…
One Hundred Years of Solitude.
… and a historical drama?
Jayme Monjardim’s Olga.
You can solve one historical mystery. What is it?
What is behind the claims of alien activity in Quixadá, Brazil?
Courtney J. Campbell is Associate Professor in Latin American History at the University of Birmingham. Her latest book is Region Out of Place: The Brazilian Northeast and the World (1924-1968) (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022).
